The Kalka-Shimla rail
route, which completes 100 years tomorrow, offers the charm of old-world
travel amidst lofty pines and lush green, misty mountains. As Northern
Railway prepares to celebrate the first centenary of this extraordinary
engineering feat of the early mechanical age, the romance of the
Kalka-Shimla rail route continues, writesRuchika
M. Khanna

The scenic Barog railway station

THE
Kalka-Shimla rail route, which completes 100 years on November 9, offers
the charm of old-world travel amidst lofty pines and lush green, misty
mountains. This is one of the four narrow gauge rail routes on hill
terrain in the country, the other three being the Darjeeling, Ooty and
Pathankot-Jogindernagar routes. In fact, the Darjeeling route was used
as a model for the Kalka-Shimla route, which was proposed in 1891.

Started during the reign
of Lord Curzon in November 1903, mainly to ferry the Bada Sahibs and
their families to the then summer capital of Shimla, this rail route
features in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the
steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kilometers. More than
two-thirds of the track is curved, sometimes at angles as sharp as 48
degrees.

The rail
journey

Flanked by hills on both
sides, the rail line, like twin threads of silver, clings to the steep
cliffs and ventures boldly over bridges, built over tiny streams that
show off their radiance in the sunlight. The cool breeze sweeps across
your face as the train makes an arduous climb of almost 4800 feet from
Kalka to Shimla in almost five hours.

The rail line begins its
climb almost immediately after its departure from the Kalka railway
station. The toy train chugs along the line, whistling through the
deodar, pine, ficus, oak and maple woods at a speed of 22 km an hour. As
the journey begins, one is taken in with the change in vegetation, and
the majestic glory of the railway stations and Gothic-style bridges en
route. The most refreshing part of the journey is the experience of
sitting by the window, breathing in the cool breeze and taking in the
greenery, smell of fresh dew on the vegetation, the chirping of birds
and the sight of cattle grazing around the track, especially if you are
travelling in either of the two early morning toy trains.

Ancient wall clocks can be seen at many stations.

Neals Token Instrument, a communication and track control system dating back to the early 20th century, is still
functional.

Bridges along the Kalka-Shimla rail route may soon be declared World Heritage sites. — Photos by Pankaj Sharma

Most of these railway
stations on the route are will also mark 100 years of their existence.
Painted in white and blue, these railway stations built in the Gothic
style take you back in time. Their picturesque location, names of most
of the 18 stations and their history — Taksal (where most of the kings
of the era had their mint), Koti, Barog — keeps you busy en route.
The awed traveller is also forced to think about the splendid
engineering and architecture of these railway stations, built in the
early days of the mechanical period. The Barog railway station has, for
instance, been constructed in such a way that a kuhl is running
beneath the building.

The memorabilia of the Raj
can be found at most of these stations. Wall clocks, which have to be
wound with a key, of SW Benson 1903 make, still adorn the walls of
Station Masters of the Summer Hill and Barog railway stations. Though
these clocks are now defunct, they still find a place of pride because
of their nostalgic value. Similarly, semi-porcelain hand-painted
crockery, also made in England, and some furniture (dressing table,
chairs) have also been well preserved at the Barog Railway Station. This
crockery — an incomplete tea set, rice plates, jugs etc. — have been
kept under lock and key as exhibits and are seldom used.

Even as the world has
moved into the computer age, ancient systems still work here. Ancient
communication and track control system, called Neals Token Instrument
System, is still in use on this rail section. Block phones are also used
to establish links between two stations. Lanterns, like the ones used in
the last century, are still being used to signal the trains to stop or
move.

The first main station is
at Dharampur, at a height of 4,900 feet and at a distance of 20 miles
from Kalka. The gradient here is very steep, and in order to achieve the
flatter gradients required by the Railways, the line develops into three
loops at Taksal, Gumman and Dharampur. After leaving Dharampur, the rail
line gains on the road route by taking short cuts and tunnels so that up
to Tara Devi, the distance by rail from Kalka is almost one-fourth mile
less than the distance by road.

Twentyfour miles from
Kalka, the railway line is 5,200 feet above sea, where it falls to 4,900
feet at Solan, and further to 4,667 feet at Kandaghat (36-and-a half
miles from Kalka), where the final ascent to Shimla starts. From Tara
Devi, the rail line goes round the Prospect Hill to Jatogh, winding in a
series of curves round Summer Hill and burrows under the Inverarm Hill
to emerge below the road on the south side of Inverarm, and thus reaches
Shimla.

Interestingly, all the 18
stations on this route are located next to bridges. These railway
stations were built here for the benefit of the labour employed for
constructing the bridges, which could take rest here. Some of these
stations have now been abandoned because they were financially unviable.
Though many of the small stations have a sale of less than Rs 500 a
month, only a few, like Jabli, have been abandoned. Others like Koti,
which have a sale of less than Rs 100 a month, cannot be closed because
of their operational importance, inform railway officials.

One of the most
interesting features of the Kalka-Shimla route is the absence of girder
bridges. There is only one 60-foot plate girder span in a pinewood near
Dharampur and a steel trestle viaduct, which replaced a stone gallery in
1935. The remaining 866 bridges, representing three per cent of the
line, carry the rail track over the ravines and between the hill spurs.

Multi-arched galleries
like ancient Roman aqueducts have been used to take the tracks over the
difficult terrain, which would otherwise have been difficult to cover.
These stone masonary arched bridges, which use lime stone, have as many
as four storeys, each storey having an arch and each arch having a
different configuration. In fact, the Railway authorities are now making
efforts to get the UNESCO to declare three of these bridges — Bridge
No 541 (between Kandaghat and Kanoh), Bridge No 226 (between Sanwara and
Dharampur), and Bridge No 493 (near Kanoh) — as World Heritage sites.

Informs Keshav Chandra,
the Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railway, Ambala Division,
"Other than this, we are also making efforts for declaring the
Shimla railway station and two rest houses at the Shimla railway station
— the Crow Brough Rest House (built in 1921) and Wood Bank Rest House
(built in 1920) — as World Heritage structures."

Most of the 102 tunnels
(the 1930’s renumbering, with numbers going up to 103, has not been
changed till date though tunnel number 46 does not exist any more) too
have a history of their own. An interesting feature about these tunnels
is that till today, whenever these tunnels have to be illuminated for
maintenance, plain mirrors are used to catch the sunlight and reflect
this light inside the tunnel.

Gone are the days of
travelling in the rickety coaches with wooden berths. In their place
stand freshly painted coaches which provide the comfort of chair cars.
Another coach, Shivalik Queen, provides privacy in the form of coupes.
For those looking for royal luxury, the Railways provides Shivalik
Palace, a separate luxurious compartment with beautiful interiors,
provision of sleepers and comfortable sofas for relaxing. This also has
a well-equipped kitchen and an attendant to serve foods and drinks,
along with an attached bathroom. The other option for tourists is to
take the rail car which takes lesser time than regular trains to reach
Shimla.

How the
rail route was built

It was in 1816 that the
British government retained a part of the hill on which Shimla now
stands after the close of the Gurkha War. The British established a
cantonment at Sabathu and raised the First Nasiri Battalion. Capt. Ross,
its commandant, constructed for himself a log hut with a thatched roof,
which marked the beginning of Shimla.

Capt. Charles Pratt
Kennedy of Bengal Artillery succeeded Ross in 1821, and built a far more
pretentious house, which was the first permanent house of the township.
Shortly after his appointment, he was entrusted with the control of
local matters in the hills and designated as the Deputy Superintendent
of Sikh and Hill Affairs. In 1827, Lord Amherst, the Governor-General of
India, spent the summer at Shimla and found the place to his liking. It
was under his successor, Lord William Bentinck, that Shimla became the
summer headquarters of the government of India.

However, the journey from
the plains to Shimla was cumbersome. The first major achievement in this
direction was the opening of the Grand Hindostan and Tibet Road in 1856.
Earlier, the mode of travel to the hills was by jampans (sedan
chair fitted with curtains and slung on poles borne by bearers at an
even trot) for women, and men usually rode the track via Kasauli,
Kakkarhati, Haripur and Syree to Shimla. Then came the 58-mile tract to
Shimla passing through Dharampur, Solan, Kairee Ghat, to be followed by
the Kalka-Shimla Tonga Service.

It was during the tenure
of Marquess of Dufferin as the Viceroy (1884 -1888) that the
construction of a railway line was actively considered. A new company,
Delhi-Umbala-Kalka Railway, started the construction of the line from
Ambala to Kalka in 1891. It took another ten years to extend this line
to Shimla when Lord Curzon was the Viceroy, and the line was formally
opened on November 9, 1903, after having spent Rs 1.6 crore, with a
single track of 2ft. 6 in. gauge.

Connecting Kalka to Shimla
was no easy task as the civil engineers had to lay the track so that it
did not disturb the pristine surroundings. Chronicled as the most
surveyed project of its time, it was a correspondent of the Delhi
Gazette who first sketched the route in 1847. No work was done on
the project till 1885, when the project was revived again.s Even a
second report, prepared for this rail link in 1887, failed to initiate
any concrete work. Yet another survey, commissioned in 1895, finally
resulted in the signing of the Kalka-Shimla Construction Contract.